Buckle



NOV. 17, V1964 M. GARBER l-:TAL

BUCKLE Filed May 31. 1962 United States Patent O 3,156,961 BUEKLE iviirei., Garber and Hilary Goldberg, Johannesburg, Transvaal, Repuhiic oiSouth Africa, assignors to Miniwheel limited, London, England Filed May31, 1962, Ser. No. @3,995 Claims priority, application Repuhiic oitSouth Airica, .liuiy 1S, 1961, R 61/718 2 Claims. (Ci. 24m-34) Thisinvention relates to buckles of the kind comprising a hinged, andpreferably pronged, jaw which receives and clamps `a strap (or a web)between itself and the base plate of the buckle to vary the efectivelength 'of the strap. It thus divides the strap into two zones, one otwhich is the zone in which the strap is, in use, under tension and theother of which is the untensed tail end of the strap.

These buckles are used on the straps which secure carriers to the.outside or" motor vehicles. The carriers may `be mounted on the roof,when the stra-ps may terminate in hooks which engage the gutter-ing toeach side of the body; 4or on the boot where the edges of the boot covermay be used to anchor the carrier.

One object of the invention is to provide a buckle which can be used foryall these purposes.

According tothe invention, the buckle comprises a base plate that isformed with two hooked ends, the hooks being `of ditte-rent types toengage two different categories of anchor. Thus, for instance, a `strapmay have to engage alternatively with the `glittering of -a motor carbody, or with the rim of its boot.

Further `according to the invention, the pivoted clamping jaw isstraddled by two lateral slots, and the jaw is reversible. To this end,the clamping jaw may be hinged on lugs projecting upwardly from arectangular plate, the edges of which are slidably received in lateralgrooves on the base plate.

Two embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a tace view of the rst embodiment;

FIGURE 2 is a side view;

FIGURE 3 is `a side View of lthe second embodiment;

FIGURE 4 is a face View ot the second embodiment;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary view showing one hook in use; and

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary view showing the second hook in use.

In both embodiments, the base plate lo, which is bent from sheet metal,is formed at its ends with hooked portions y12, 14 of dilerent shapes.The hook 12 is intended to engage the guttering on either side of avehicle body, as shown in FIGURE 5. The hook 14 is intended to enga-gethe edge ot the boot of -a vehicle, as shown in FIGUR-E 6. In the`former case, means is included to clamp the hooked buckle in position.In FlGURES l and 2 the means is a loose bracket 13 which is moved intothe cavity of the `glittering and yclamped by a wing nut 22 on a bolt214. In FIGURE 3, the means are two screws 26 that are screwed throughholes in a ledge 28 in the base plate lll, for their ends to bearagainst 4the ange Ztl'.

The buckle proper consists, in both c-ases, of a pronged 3,156,96123a-tenter! Nov. 17, 1964 'ice jaw 39 pivoted on lugs 32 provided bybending upwardly the terminal zones of a sheet metal strip 343 to deiinebetween Ithe pronged jaw and the strip a channel for a webbed strap 34.

The :strap is passed through the channel with the jaw 3i) pivoted toclear the channel and to lie parallel with the strap. The strap is drawntaut fand released, whereupon the prongs are engaged by the strap torotate the jaw about its pivotal axis and tor the prongs to penetratethe strap to anchor it.

As the buckle is reversible, it is necessary that the jaw 3o be alsoreversible. To this end, the strip 33 extends to each side or" the lugs32 to constitute tongues 36 that enga-ge slidably in two parallelgrooves 38, formed by pressing out two slots 40, one to each side of thebuckle and bending over the metal of the slots towards Aone another. Thebuckle is reversed by sliding strip 33 out of .the slots Alti, reversing=it and sliding it back into place.

One utility of the buckle is that the change of direction in the strap34'- as `it leaves the pronged jaw 39 and passes through a slot di?subjects the strap to substantial frictional constraint against slip andthus supplements and buttresses the jaw Sti. Tension on the tail end ofthe strap causes the clamp to open and the frictional resistance tomovement of the strap through the yslot is low enough for the strapeasily to be drawn tight.

Finally, the base plate may be aperture-d to either side .of the slotsd@ as shown `at 42 and possibly also in the hook 'forma-tions as shownat 44 to receive anchoring bolts, ter instance those which hold a roofcarrier in place. In this case the free end of the bol-t Iis passedthrough the aperture and a nut anchors the base plate in position.

We claim:

1. A buckle comprising a base plate that is formed with two hooked ends,the hooks being of different type to engage two dilerent .categories ofanchor, two spaced slots parallel to the ends 4of the base plate, theslots being formed by pressing out adjacent tongues from the base plateand the tongues being bent over to deiine opposed grooves betweenthemselves, a rectangular plate wit-h lugs projecting upwardlytherefrom, and a clamping jaw hinged on the lugs, the rectangular platebeing slidably and reversibly received in the grooves.

2. The buckle claimed in claim 1 in which one hook is a plain hook forengaging over relatively thin edges and the other hook is provided withscrew means for clamping an edge between the 'screw means and a part ofthe base plate.

Reierences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,420,027 Ehrman et al. June 20, 1922 1,825,612 Barton Sept. 19, 19312,186,811 Uhlmann I an. 9, 194() 2,514,266 Walslager July 4, 19503,019,954 lFaltin Feb. 6, 1962 FOREIGN PATENTS 384,017 Great BritainDec. 1, 1932 141,132 Switzerland H -.H V Oct. 1, 1930

1. A BUCKLE COMPRISING A BASE PLATE THAT IS FORMED WITH TWO HOOKED ENDS,THE HOOKS BEING OF DIFFERENT TYPE TO ENGAGE TWO DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OFANCHOR, TWO SPACED SLOTS PARALLEL TO THE ENDS OF THE BASE PLATE, THESLOTS BEING FORMED BY PRESSING OUT ADJACENT TONGUES FROM THE BASE PLATEAND THE TONGUES BEING BENT OVER TO DEFINE OPPOSED GROOVES BETWEENTHEMSELVES, A RECTANGULAR PLATE WITH LUGS PROJECTING UPWARDLY THEREFROM,AND A CLAMPING JAW HINGED ON THE LUGS, THE RECTANGULAR PLATE BEINGSLIDABLY AND REVERSIBLY RECEIVED IN THE GROOVES.